Articles

“A personal connection with the environment is at the heart of my work, which is first and foremost a celebration of the natural world.” – Ava Roth Ava Roth is a…

Maine’s forests, stretching across 89 percent of the state, have long been the backbone of its economy, sustaining generations of loggers, truckers, and mill workers. Over the course of…

Dozens of people contribute to creating each issue of Northern Woodlands. Here are a few of the people whose work is featured in the Autumn magazine. {image2} Loren Merrill (Discoveries, page…

To run, your chainsaw needs air, fuel, spark, and compression in the cylinder. If any of those components are missing, your chainsaw won’t work – or at least won’t run and…

Two miles down the trail that’s still drunk from coal dust though the rails screamed their way to scrap half a century since, we quit walking calm, start skewing wild as if those old…

Since the late 19th century, the six-million-acre Adirondack Park – as big as Vermont, bigger than Yellowstone, Glacier, Everglades, and Grand Canyon national parks combined – has…

My neighbor Judy Smith, who is a geologist, told me one afternoon that the shale cliffs we looked up at from her cottage porch, along the north branch of the Susquehanna River, are Devonian…

When John Adler, at the age of 23, first heard Swedish logger Soren Eriksson talk about new techniques for harvesting trees safely and efficiently, he saw an opportunity. Adler had been…

Shagbark hickory (Carya ovata) trees are a familiar sight along rural roads and field edges over much of the Northeast. They are recognizable year-round by their telltale bark, with pieces…

Fungi are a fundamental part of forest ecosystems. They break down dead plant material, releasing nutrients for other organisms to use, and they help plants access water and nutrients needed…

While studying for a master’s degree in architecture at Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Aleksandra “Sasha” Azbel discovered a new love: textiles. She was intrigued by…

Lenny Gorski first noticed piebald deer – two of them – while searching for bucks to photograph more than three decades ago. “A piebald deer will have white mixed into its…

The nature of a quarterly magazine timed to publish with the change of seasons means that I’m writing my column for this Autumn issue during the hottest, muggiest days of summer. The…

Bumble bees are culturally iconic and essential to our environment. While unwittingly inspiring classical music, soft toys, and jewelry, bumble bees pollinate flowers both obscure and…

Today, four days from the end of October, I plan to walk the edge of a small creek. As the raven flies, it’s 15 miles east of our house, two ridges into the Ridge and Valley, yet…

About a year ago, I took over Northern Woodlands’ This Week in the Woods blog, which my predecessor and skilled observer Elise Tillinghast began during the pandemic and wrote for four…